Coal-loading machine



N." A. NEWDICK.

c011 101mm; MACHINE. APPLICATION FILED AUG-24, I918.

1,4113,128. Patented p -18,1922.

Iii

AZAMWM N. A. NEWDICK.

COAL LOADING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED AUG.24, 1918.

Patented Apr. 18, 1922.

3 SHEETSSHEET 2.

Guam

N. A. NEWDICK.

COAL LOADING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. 24, 1918.

Patentd Apr; 18, 1922.

3 SHEETSSHEET 3.

iilllli! Snow who's /1 ./4. flaw M siren sT Tss PATENT orrics.

neuron A. NEWDICK, or

COLUMBUS; oIIIo, ASSIGNOR o JAMEs-ELLwoon JONES, or SWITCI-IBACK, wssr VIRGINIA. i

GOAL-LOADING- MACHINE;

i ,aiaiss,

' V truck adapted for use in connection with resides" in passing around is also a novel'structure whereby the front 7 V a loading machine which is itself mounted at its opposite end to perthe' front end of mit' of a sweep movement acrossthe mine chamber while the truck itself is'designed "perform the functionof supporting the frontend of the loading machine'in transporting it irom one. position to another within the mine its elf. V

One of the main objects of my a structure whereby the pony truck maybe su'pported'by the loading'mafchine in an inoperative position to permit of the sweep movement of the loading machine without" any interference whatever from the pony truck. This 'isof'advanta'ge in that the pony'truck may be mounted in an inoperative position upon'the loading ma. chme and "at a point ad acent or dlrectly above the mine tracks'to be ready for quick use whenever desired. Also,

this arrangement' avoids the unnecessary ing the truck to one side of the mine chamber when not in use and again returning it when desiring its use.

A further object of this invention resides in the structure'wherebythe front end of the loading machine is coupled to the truck to give it an articulated movement when curves. Associated with this end of the'loading machine may be readily and convenientlv guided into its proper position upon the truck when such movement is desired.

Still another object of the-present invention resides in 'means'for resisting the rearward movement of the truck upon its rails when the front end of the loading machine is being moved rearwardly. to cause it toassume a position upon the truck As shown in the drawings this resisting effort may be accomplished by braking the wheels or it may be accomplished by means structure or a combination of wheels.

Specification-of Letters'Patent;

invention V c In Figures labor of movoperating in bearings 18 ofthe: skid Patented Apr. 18

Application filed August 24, 1918. Serial No. 251,330. T

The preferred embodiment of my inven-v tion is shown inthe accompanying sheets of drawings in -which' similar characters of reference denote corresponding parts and in which; 1

view of; the pony taken-through one of the skids 0f the struc;

ture as shown in Figure 3, 's I "-vFigure 5 is a'central-longitudinal sectional view of the lower front end oftheloadin'g' machine showing the pony truck in :its

supportingposition;- r F1gu re "6 is a transverse 'vertic'ah'section taken on line :6 ..6 of Figure 0, and

Figure 7 is a horizontal section takenson line 77=of Figure 6. is designatedin its entirety lbyi the refer: en'ce numeral 1 and is shown'as being-pivotally --mounted at 2 upon a supporting wheeled truck 3, The essential elements 1 and '2,the-loading:

of this loading machine are the head r and tail sprockets 4 and 5 over'which a chainpasses carrying flights shown at ,6. The conveyor pan is located on both the goin and-return sides of the chain and is formed with a depressed lower end 7 downwardly inclined intermediate ortion 8 and the rear fiat portion 9, the flights 6 operating in this. pan and the'chain and other operative structure for the flights being combined within the housing structure shown at 10.

The pony truck itself is shown separately in Figures 3 and 4: and comprises-a bed plate 11, a pair of axles 12 secured thereto and flanged wheels 13. The otheredges of each of these wheels at l t'to co-operate with the chains shown at 15 in Figure .1; These chainsare secured at one end as shown at 16 to the intermediate portion 8 of the'loading machine and their opposite ends are secured to a windlassstructure-in the naturev of a-shaft 17 and preferably operated manually by means of cranks 19. One of 'thexother ends of this shaft 17 is are grooved as shown v 60 Figure 1 is a view in side elevationof a also provided with a ratchet wheel 20 operatin in conjunction with the pawl 21.

Should it be desired to use the loading machine for the purpose of loading coal,

the same is given a sweep movement across the mine floor after the flights 6 have been set in operation. It is at this time that it is necessary that the pony truck should be in a noninterfering position and to accomplish this, it is proposed to move it to the position shown in Figure 1 by causing the chains 15 to seat themselves in the wheel grooves: 14 and then operating the Windlass structure 17 whereby the chains 15 are wound thereon and the pony truck drawn clear of the tracks or floor thereby permitting the sweep movement of the loader.

From Figure 1, it will be observed that the rear end of the load-ing machine is pivotally mounted in a horizontal direction about the rear axle 22 by means of the vertical pivot casting 2. The front end of this loading-machine must necessarily then be .supported in some other manner than upon the mine floor when moving from chamber to chamber. To this end, the pony truck has been supplied and in order to permit of an articulated movement, the following structure has been devised, a bearing member 23 hasbeen provided and located near the lower front end: of the machine, and as shown, in Figure 6 is secured to the frame members 24 which, with the structures shown at 25 forms the guidewayswithin which the chain 26 carrying the flights 6 operates, This hearing member 23; is in turn provided with a sleeve-27 upon which a pair of caster wheels 28 are rotatably mounted as shown for instance inv Figure 7 by means of the anti-fric- 'tion bearings .29.: These fcaster wheels 28 are spaced apart to some extent to prevent a sidewise rocking motion when in. their ap plied position upon thetruck and in order to securely couple the loader to the truck, a king'bolt 30 is provided which fits within the sleeve27 and seats in a socket bearing casting 31 rigidly secured upon the truck itself as shown. This arrangement then prevents the accidental separation of the loading machine and the truck when being moved about the mine and in order to prevent the king bolt 30 from being jarred out of position, the sleeve portion 27 is provided'with a bayonet slot, the horizontal portion of which is shown at 32 and the vertical portion. at 33. The king bolt is provided with a lateral pin 34 which operates in this bayonet slot and, afterapplying the king bolt, it is given a quarter turn by grasping the handle 35 whereupon the pin seats itself in the hori zontal remova The truck itself is provided with a pair of skids 36 which are pivot-ally mounted interportion 32 to prevent its accidental mediate their ends in connection with the front axle 37 of the pony truck by means of the structure shown at 38. These skids are flared at their forward ends as shown at 39 While their rear ends 40 are of a size to comfortably fit the caster wheels 28 and the skids themselves are provided with vertical flanges 41 to serve as guides for the casters or rollers 28. In loading the machine upon the truck, the truck is dropped to an oper-r cause of the weight of the leader as is indi- 1 cated in Figure 5. The skids themselves are provided with a stop 42 to prevent the rollers from moving beyond the rear end of the truck and the skids are further provided with limiting buffers 43 which engage the bed plate 11 of the truck to insure the skids assuming a horizontal position. After this operation, the king bolt is applied and. the "tructure is ready 'fortransportation about the mine.

In loading the machine upon the pony truck as just described, diiliculty is sometimes encountered because of the rearward sliding of the truck upon the tracks simul-- taneously withthe rearward movement of theloader. To overcome this, I have provided the front. ends of the skids 36 with a plurality of teeth those marked 43 being along the front edges thereof and those indicated at 44 being along the out edge of the depending legs of the skids. The weight of the machine will force'these teeth into en-' .gagement with the floor or cause themjto catch, upon the ties and in this manner will assist in holding the truck in stationary po-.

si-tion, as the loader is moved rearwardly. Should this not be sufiicient, however, I have provided an additional structure for braking certain of the wheels. Referring particularly to Figure 3, a pair of bars 45 are shown whose ends 46 are turned up as shown to form brake shoes to engage the webs 47 of the truck wheels 14. The inner ends of these bars are offset slightly as shown at 48' and are apertured to be connected by means of a tension spring 49. This tension spring operates to normally pull thebars and their brake shoes out of engagement with the webs 47 and these brake shoes are forced into braking engagement with their webs by 'means of the following mechanism. Levers 50 are provided and are pivotally mounted to the bed plate '11 intermediate their ends asshown at 51 and are provided with a slot-- 7 ted'connection, with their respective bars as shown at 52. The opposite ends of these the sleeve 27' which carries 27, 1 attach a collar which is suitably journaled in bearings 56 and whose ends are squared to be engagedby a suitableoperating toolor wrench.

Thus, when the shaft 55 is rotated, the humps of the cams 5d operating in connection with the rollers 53 on the levers 51 will in turn force the brake shoes into holding relation with the truck wheel webs 47. In this manner, the truck may be readily held in position and in addition, if it' is found desirable, this braking mechanism may be used vto supplement the action of the teeth 48 and 4C4.

In rounding the curve when the "front end of the loader is upon the truck it is essential that the caster'wh'eels turn slightly in their bearings to permit of anarticulated the completion of I have provided the rounding of the curve,

the rollers 28 w1th a collar 57. rigidly held, in connection with the sleeve by, means of the set screw shown at 58; 'To this coll'ar,-and at a point some considerable dlstance from the sleeve idly-secured at its otherend to the loader frame work as shown at. 60. This spring m alntain :the caster 7 wheels 1n their central position although will then operate to their deflection is permitted and made pos-' sible by the tensiomng of the spring 59.

From the foregoing description, taken in connection with the accompanying sheets 01": drawings, it will be. apparent that I have provided a structure possessing various utilitarian features. Among theseis the structure "for coupling the loader and truck together, the structure for permitting the proper operationot the skids 36, the brak-- ing mechanism, the centering of the casters by means of the spring 59, the structure for moving the truck out of interfering-position, etc. When the loader is moved into its proper position in the mine chamber,

the front end of the loader is removed from the pony truck by first removing the king bolt 30. The braking mechanism is then rendered effective by rotating the shaft 55 to bring the humps of the cams 54: into proper engagement with the levers 50 so that the brake shoes 46 are moved into engagement with the wheelwebs 457-. Thus the truck may be held in stationary posi-' tion when the loader is advanced a distance suiiicient to permit the casters to ride upon the skids 36. As soon as these rollers move beyondthe front axle 12 of the truck, the skid pivots about the axlelQ and tilts downwardly thus permitting the complete removal of the loader. The truck is then tension spring 59 rigchains 15 brought into engagement with the grooved portions 14: of the wheels 13, it being understood that these wheels '13 are of a width considerably greater than the track upon which they rideso that they project beyond this track to permit the ready application of the chain. The shaft 17 is again manually operated and the truck drawn up to the position shown in Figure 1 which is a non-interfering position to'permit the sweep movement of the loader. The flights 6 carried by the chain 26 are then set in motion by a suitable'motor and driving mechanism usually carried by the truck 3', not shown in the present drawings. This chain is of endless form, the tail sprocket around which it passes beingshown at ()1 in Figure 5. This tail sprocket is also shown as being adjustable by means of a take up structure in case the chain should wear which take up structure is'operated by rotating the threaded collar or nut 62 operat ing in conju'nction with the screw 63 l All of therema nlng connections of the take up the loader has performed itsfunctions and it is desired to remove thesame to another chamber, the process described when removing the loader-from theftruck is reversed.

In other words, the pony truck is lowered :upon the tracks and moved into position be-' neat-h the front end of the. loader. The

brake mechanism may be set and rearward movement of the loader brings the teeth 43 and 4% into holding engagement with the ground' Continued rearward movement will-in timecau'se the skids toassume they positions shownin Figure 5, and the king boltBO will then be inserted and locked in position. I 1 What is claimed as new and patentable 1s:

1. The combination with a downwardly inclined loading machine capable of a sweep movement, of a pony truck, end means for engaging the wheels of said truck for drawing it up adjacent the under side of the in clined portion of said machineout of interfering position to permit it a sweep move-- inent.- 7 I 2. The combination with a downwardly inclined loading machine capable of a sweep movement, of a wheeled pony truck, the wheels of said truck being grooved, chains secured at one end to said machine and adapted to seat in said grooves, and means operating in connection with the other ends of'said chains for shortening the effective length of the chains for drawing said truck up adjacent the underside of the inclined portion of said machine out position to permit it a sweep movement;

of interfering 1 3. The combination with a downwardly inclined loading machine capable of a sweep movement, of a wheeled pony truck, the wheels of said truck being grooved, chains secured at one end to said machine and adapted to seat in said grooves, and a manually operated Windlass structure for the other end of said chains for drawing the truck up adjacent the inclined portion of said machine out of interfering position to permit it a sweep movement. 1

4.111 a-loading machine, a gathering mechanism mounted at its rear end to permit a sweep movement, a pony truck for the front end ofsaid mechanism, a caster. wheel structure carried by said mechanism and pivotally mounted in connection therewith, means co-operating with said structure for guiding said mechanism onto said truck and spring means operatively engaging said structure to normally hold it in centered position-J 5. In a loading machine, a gathering mechanism mounted at its rear end to permit a sweep movement, a pony truck for .the front end of said mechanism, a caster wheel-structure carried'by said mechanism, means co-operating with said structure "for guiding said mechanism onto said'truck, a bearing member carried by said mechanism,

a sleeve carried by said structure and fitting within sa d member, spring means opera- 7 tively engaging said sleeve to normally hold said structure centered,'a bear ng member 'o n sai'd truck, a king bolt passing tlir'ough with said skid, and means carried by said skid structure for resisting its rearward sliding during the loading of said mechanism thereon.

7 In a loading machine, gathering mechanism mounted at its rear end to permit a sweep movement,a pony truck for the tront end or said mechanism, a skid structure pivotally mounted intermediate its ends" a'dj acent the front of said truck, means on the front or" said mechanism for co-operation with said skid, and a plurality of teethcarried by said skid structure for engaging the floor for resisting rearward movementof the'truck during the loading of said mechanism thereon. I V

In testimony whereof I am); signature. V

NORTON NEYYDICK; 

